Ongoing developments in semiconductor structures demand accurate inspection. In the field of inspection of semiconductor wafers and other objects (e.g. flat panels, reticles, and the like), good results have been obtained in systems that create one or more image(s) of an object being inspected and, based on the image data, attempt to identify defects in/on the object.
In such systems, it is often advantageous to perform additional analysis or operation on data identifying defects and/or suspected defects. Generally, these higher order analyses occur after initial analysis/operations that serve to identify defects/suspected defects, and can comprise more sophisticated analysis that can provide better inspection results.
For example, some systems may compare fields of view to identify defects. While this may be suitable for some applications, it may be advantageous to perform additional analysis of the identified defects, such as clustering, automatic defect classification (ADC), signature analysis, and the like, in order to provide more useful results.